My Eye-Opening Experience at Social Innovation Academy (SINA) in Uganda
(Our funder recently went to Uganda for an immersive social innovation training, and we’re eager to hear about her experience.) With so many places offering social innovation training, one may wonder why she chose a place she had never been to and barely knew anything about. At the time, her decision was based on the program’s cost and duration, and SINA fit perfectly with program fees of around 1000 USD and a total period of three months.
After bidding farewell to her work and family members, she embarked on her journey. Initially, her image of Africa was shaped solely by media portrayals of suffering due to insufficient resources and illness. However, her trip to Uganda drastically changed her perspective.
SINA is an impressive complex of typical African buildings, and what really caught her eye were the bottle buildings being constructed every year. When she arrived, one bottle house was almost complete, and as she left, another one was just starting to be built. This initiative is in response to bottle waste, and it’s certainly a clever way to upcycle plastic bottles, especially in resource-limited African countries. In fact, 60% of houses in SINA are made from plastic bottles, and they also use these buildings to attract tourists, generating income for the area.
Despite limited resources, SINA has created a variety of facilities for its members, including a playground for basketball and football, a gym for exercise, and a multimedia house for entertainment. They’ve managed to provide everything needed for daily life. It’s truly impressive!
To understand what SINA does, we need to start with its history. The German founder of SINA was a volunteer at an orphanage in Uganda a few years ago, where he saw the difficulty these orphans faced in pursuing careers after reaching adulthood. Determined to help, he started training them in leadership and entrepreneurship, eventually leading to the conception of SINA. The organization’s goal is to transform orphans and ambitious African youth into job creators, not job seekers.
SINA now recruits not only orphans but also talented youth from all over the country. She participated in the Applied Social Innovation program, the first stage of their training program, which provided invaluable personal and professional development.
What she found most wonderful about SINA was the atmosphere. Once she stepped inside, she felt different. Everyone there had their social projects, and as a social entrepreneur, she had mentors to support her. Surrounded by so many outstanding young people, she felt empowered and capable of achieving anything. SINA is a complete system that guides you through your entrepreneurship journey. She truly believes that people are destined to accomplish their passions and dreams in such a supportive and inspiring environment.
Edit by SOCIAL INNOVATION INSIGHT
